Stills of Our Settings and Locations

 

These are stills from the scene where we see our suspect handing someone drugs. These are our location shots, we chose to film outside school as we thought it would be best. As there were bushes and fences, in which our investigator could hide behind. This looked affective as it connoted a trapped and insecure environment that the inspector was in. Also filming after school meant that it would be dark outside, this was a plus for us as the darkness connoted danger and that evil was near. We chose this location in particular as our investigator could hide behind the bushes and yet be in perfect view of the suspect and his associate. The fences work well within the frame also as they add these gritty blurs in front of the lens. Thus creating a sense of being trapped or perhaps that the victims future is of him behind bars. We also chose to see the deal going on outside some normal houses, as it showed that they were in some sort of disgusting estate were things like this happen every second. Therefore creating a creepy environment for audiences.

Stills of Our Settings and Locations

 

These are stills from two of our scenes, firstly and interior shoot of our investigators office. This was some re-filming we had to do. Which involved our investigator walking in to the room and him walking back out with a camera. We chose that office in particular because it was very plain it showed our investigator as a sensible man. The next lot of pictures demonstrate us filming exterior shots, of our suspect selling some drugs and handing over some money. This is where our investigator is stalking our suspect and taking pictures of his illegal acts. Today we filmed everything we were supposed to we were able to re-shoot the investigators office and the scenes with our suspect and his associate. We did not stray away from our earlier ideas that we established within our storyboards. As for the exterior scenes of our suspect we followed our storyboards, we showed how the investigator was stalking our suspect behind a fence. We wanted to get in the fact that the investigator was behind a bush, and that the fence would show on the stills that the investigator took of the suspect. Our office scenes were rather exact in comparison to our title sequence, although we did stray away a bit as we cut out certain shots. Such as him walking in to the office, and the fact that we have a point of view shot swiping across the items on the investigators desk. Other then those we followed our story boards exact, so overall filming went well. We were able to shoot in the office and the exterior shoots we got lucky with also. As we were able to get in the bush and the fence, we were also lucky with the dull weather. The rain made the title sequence feel more dark and brooding. 

Journal 28/01/11

Today as a group we have been looking in to how we can edit all of our newly filmed pieces of footage. We are currently re-arranging all of the footage we filmed the other week in the meat packing factory also. We are working hard on  making all the footage flow perfectly, we are also thinking about editing and all the things we can put in. For instance we think that using jump cuts of our footage will look really good and compliment our music well. We have been looking in to jump cuts and the style we shall use, we think that this will give our title sequence a much better fast pace to it.

We have also been looking in to our titles today and how we wont them to look and we are currently in the process of adding in our production logo in to our title sequence. We are also playing with the possible effects we could use for our production logo. For example how it shall appear on the screen by either fading in or dissolving in. I think at the moment we are really liking the way it shall fade on to our screen. We shall decide this in the weeks to come.

Props

These are the props in which we will use for our title sequence. Firstly we are going to make a file on our suspect and the main sheet shall have an array of different articles in which we found on the internet about triads. We have simply changed the name to our suspects name and we have written vital info about our suspect on it. Such as his whole name, his age, where he lives and other criminal offenses he has committed. It shall have a picture of him at the top of the sheet along with this vital information, the photo is of Si Hin and it is one of his most recent passport photos.

Another prop we shall use will  be a professional camera in which the investigator will use. He will use this camera to take pictures of the suspect, in a sense he will use this camera to stalk him. To document what he does in a day to day routine, and how this makes him look like a criminal. We shall show him picking up this camera in his office, then him using it in which to take pictures of the suspect with.

We also made fake drugs out of potato starch and we have used these when filming in the meat packing factory. We have also used an envelope of money as a prop, all the money was Si Hin's savings and it made him look more powerful and like a real triad within the title sequence. We use this envelope in the meat packing office scene. Then re used this envelope and shot it in the scene where our suspect hands something to one of his "associates".  

To do list

- Editing shots from the investigators office and the triads hangout, so that the music fits in with any dialogue.√
-Film exterior shots of the investigator stalking the suspect.√
-Re-film scenes from the investigators office.√
-Do audience research, get their feedback.√

Journal 21/01/11

Today we have been editing our title sequence, we have now made the music fit with the dialogue within the title sequence. Through fading the music in places and making the dialogue louder. We have now decided today in the early aspects of editing that we should do our audience feedback. As right now is the best time to get any feedback because we are in the stages where making big changes will not really set us back too much, or effect the title sequence that much either. We shall do this some time this week, i think we are considering on doing it in our double lesson on Friday. We are thinking of ideas on how we can present our audience feedback, so that it can benefit us and be presented nicely on the blog. We are still in discussion about this and i shall update the blog on this once we have decided.

Also today we have realised that we urgently need to re-film shots from the investigators office such as elements as items on his desk. We really want to get this done in the first few days of next week such as Tuesday and Wednesday. So that are title sequence will look really professional, we will confer with Sean who is acting as our investigator so that he can appear in these re-filming processes. We have also decided that we would like to shot our other exterior shots of the investigator stalking the suspect this week hopefully on Wednesday. I shall update upon these matters once the group has met on Monday and decided upon all of these things.

Journal 20/01/11

So  yesterday we eliminated any pieces of film that we did not want to appear within our title sequence. We looked over all of the footage and have now realised that there are some shots that we need to re-film. Such as the investigators office, there are elements such as the items on his desk that need to be re-filmed. This is because they do not look exactly right and make the title sequence look a bit unreal. Such as a file about the suspect it has nothing else on the page besides his personal details, therefore it does not look like a real police file. So we shall re-film this hopefully some time this week, this is something we are working on resolving and trying to edit in to our schedules.

All of this week we have been editing our title sequence, we have been working hard on the music in the title sequence. Si Hin has now edited all the parts of the song that we want in our title sequence and we have blended them together. So that they now flow perfectly just like any other normal instrumental song. We may have to do a few adjustments once we get some audience feedback. We also need to work on fitting in the shots that we have to our music. This shall be taken care of tomorrow, and we will work on looking into Si Hin's footage he got whilst filming on holiday in Hong Kong.

Possible footage for title sequence.

Si Hin went on holiday a few years ago to China whilst there he filmed a lot of skylines, buildings and streets especially in the Hong Kong area. We are hoping to use the footage in which he has and incorporate it in to our title sequence. As we feel the title sequence will work well if we present the film straight from the opening as having a Britain and China as the main two countries the film will be filmed and set within. This is a great way of getting around this using footage a group member has filmed previously themselves within this other country. That way we do not have to venture to places such as China town to be able to create this imagery. We are also deliberating between using a Hong Kong skyline then the skyline of London, to properly connect the two cities.
Below is the footage of Hong Kong that Si Hin filmed that we are thinking of using for our title sequence.

To do list

-Eliminate any footage we don't need and finalize any footage we definitely want.√

- Edit footage.√

-Get pictures of the office in which we used as the investigators office as a source of evidence and to show planning.√

Journal 18/01/11

Last week we visited BFI on a film/media school trip, this was an act of preparation for our media and film exams in June.  The day consisted of lectures all morning, then a lunch break in which many of us visited Mc Donald's. After this we went straight back to BFI and watched the new Sherlock Holmes film featuring Robert Downey JR, Jude Law and Rachel McAdams.

Within the lectures at BFI we learnt a lot to do with marketing, audiences, Hollywood and distributing and producing. There was a lot of relevant information to help us out with having a much better grasp upon making our title sequence. As it supplied us with information on how we can attract our audiences to our movie, just due to simple factors such as publicizing what actors are present within the movie. The lectures also taught us about distributor's and from this we felt reassured that we can make our own and make it very marketable to our audiences. We are doing this through calling our production company "Triad Productions" it relates perfectly to our film and has a triad symbol above it as if to reinforce it's name.

From the lectures at BFI we also found information such about "The big five" the major studio's and companies that dominate the film industry.We were able to find this relatable to our title sequence as it made us realise that our production company would come under the independent production companies. Therefore making our movie a lot more artistic and it would make our movie look like an independent movie, so perhaps as a group we should think about changing who we would want to be our investigator and our suspect. I shall keep this factor in the back of my mind and update my blog once the group has come to a decision, as there are a number of actors that work in independent movies that we could use and who would work well. Such as a Ewan Mcgreggor Esq actor for our investigator and a Jay Chou Esq actor to play the suspect.

Tomorrow we would like to edit our title sequence the two scenes in which we have already filmed of our investigator in his office and the suspect in his own office and meat packing factory. We shall look through all of our footage and it shall be like an elimination process finding out what we really need and what we will never put in our title sequence. We may need to add footage to either scenes or re-film things, so tomorrow's elimination process will be necessary before any real editing process can begin. Si Hin has also found some footage of Hong Kong that he filmed of a previous holiday to China *Fingers crossed* we can use aspects of it. I shall update on this particular subject tomorrow once we have spoken to our teachers about the footage, also hopefully i will be able to add the possible clips we want to use on to my blog tomorrow.

Production Schedule

Tomorrow Wednesday 19th January we hope to be editing the two scenes that we have now filmed of the investigator and our suspect. We also may have to do some more filming in the investigators office as we may not have enough footage to work with as planned we may not have made enough shots to make up a substantial scene. That production schedule will be looked at as soon as we can look over everything we have filmed. That shall be the work topic tomorrow as well as editing so i shall update tomorrow whether we need to re-film anything or add more shots.

Journal 17/01/11

Yesterday we filmed in the meat packing factory in Charlton, everything went well we got all of the footage that we wanted. We also found some different locations amongst the premises that we wanted to use. Such as a dark and crumbling looking alleyway, and a broken down old racing car. We found the alleyway to fit well into the scene as it adds a menacing vibe of danger to the scene. We also found the racing car to work before the alley way shot as the racing car is quite comical and shows the suspects youthfulness and outgoing and careless personality.


We think that we are hopefully completely finished with all of the footage within the premises of the meat packing factory. We hope that do not have to film anything extra, as this would be much more time consuming and would set back our production schedule. We shall hopefully start editing on Wednesday 19th January and to carry on filming and editing next week. We are finding that at this particular moment in time we are complacent and thinking that we are meeting our production schedule well, and we can only hope that this continues and that we don't run into any glitches.


Props- We also took it upon ourselves to decide what props a triad might need in the shot within the meat packing factory. We chose to use the props in the form of money and drugs, to work around the whole drug aspect we made our own. Si Hin made some fake drugs out of potato starch and we all decided upon putting them within sandwich bags. Libby also made two very small bags of drugs out of flour with salt added so that it would not stick to the bag or look at all like flour. The smaller bags will be used in other scenes for Si Hin's character to hand to his customers on the streets. Whereas the bigger bags were used within the meat packing factory to present that he was a drug dealer. Also that he was turning these big bags in to many smaller bags to be sold on. Our other prop was money, luckily Si Hin likes to save all the money he earns through working in his parents take away also any birthday and Christmas money he gets. This adds up to a lot so he was able to bring five hundred pounds out with us to the meat packing factory, to connote the massive amounts of money these triads are dealing with on a daily basis.

Stills of our settings and locations

On Sunday 16th January we went to a Chinese meat packing factory in Charlton, once we arrived we scoped out all sorts of settings we could use within this location. We chose the outside of the factory to act as an meeting place and entry. We used an alley way to signify the danger and destruction on the triad gang. As the crumbling old alley way connotes well the misery that can come from being within a gang. We also chose this particular alley way opposed to the many others within the area because it backed on to a garage. This was good to signify that these triads are not just young men they can afford nice cars and they also connote that they are always on the go, busy and off to places to collect things. Another setting we chose was the office within the factory, we chose to use the office to present how powerful this particular triad is. As if to be an example of his wealth, We thought it would show that he is like a co-partner in charge of the business. We also chose a setting behind our alley way setting that was of an old and broken down racing car. We chose this as we thought it was a rather comical element to the title sequence. As if to give a brief indication to the triads life as if to say they don't take life too seriously and thy do mess about. 

 The Entry Way Setting and Meeting Place

For the entry way setting we shot characters entering and leaving the premises, we also shot Si Hin's character going within the premises. We also caught some workers loading up cars and interacting with each other within this setting.

                                                                

The Alley Way Setting

 

Within this setting we shot Si Hin's character walking down this alley way and going to the meat packing factory. 

    The Office Setting 

Within this setting we shot Si Hin's character working for e.g. counting his money dropping off drugs and taking out more packets of drugs to sell on. 

The Race Car Setting 

Within this setting we shot Si Hin's character on the phone to his clients and to his gang members, he is also talking in Chinese in this shot so we will consider possibly putting in this dialogue and enhancing it. We also see him look at some bags of drugs that are in his bag, then we see him get off of the car and leave for the meat packing factory.

Finding footage to use in title sequence

  We wanted to use real footage from China so to keep away from Chinese copyright laws so we have decided to use news from China. Involving such items as gang warfare and riots and protests. We have found these two videos on YouTube and we are hoping to fit both of these videos within our title sequence and i think we shall shorten them slightly so we can fit the best parts of the news clips in our title sequence.

Music for title sequence

Today we looked at a lot of Chinese music, but a lot of it sounded very much like an older Chinese style of music. It sounded as if it was very old and it had that ancient sound to it. But we wanted something fast paced and like an American rap. So we chose this song as we thought the beginning of the song would fit our music video well, so we shall edit the song so we just use the beginning of the song for our title sequence.

Chinese Copyright laws

These are the Chinese copyright laws that we found that say we are allowed to use Chinese music if it is used for work purposes only.

Article 2 Works of Chinese citizens, legal entities or other organizations, whether published or not, shall enjoy copyright in accordance with this Law.

Any work of a foreigner or stateless person which is eligible to enjoy copyright under an agreement concluded between the country to which the foreigner belongs or in which he has habitual residence and China, or under an internationa1 treaty to which both countries are party, shall be protected in accordance with this Law.

Works of foreigners or stateless persons first published in the territory of the People's Republic of China shall enjoy copyright in accordance with this Law.

Any work of a foreigner who belongs to a country which has not concluded an agreement with China, or which is not a party to an international treaty with China or a stateless person first published in an country which is a party to an international treaty with China, or in such a member state or nonmember state, shall be protected in accordance with this Law. 

Article 3 For the purposes of this Law, the term "works" includes works of literature, art, natural science, social science, engineering technology and the like which are expressed in the following forms:

(1) written works;

(2) oral works;

(3) musical, dramatic, quyi', choreographic and acrobatic works;

(4) works of fine art and architecture;

(5) photograPh1c works;

(6) cinematographic works and works created by virtue of an analogous method of film production;

(7) drawings of engineering designs, and product designs; maps, sketches and other graphic works and model works;

(8) computer software;

(9) other works as provided for in laws and administrative regulations.

Stills from our settings

This image is of the entrance to our meat packing factory location. Si Hin took it when he visited them to ask them if we could use their premises, we really like the front of the meat packing factory as its bright red metal doors and Chinese writing above the door will give our title sequence some real authenticity. We will take more photo's from all the rooms and corridors we shall use here on Sunday and we shall upload them as soon as possible. More location and setting shots shall be on our blogs from our filming that will happen tomorrow.

Schedule

We have finalized the location of the meat packing factory so we are now is discussing with the owner's and we have now finalized a date for filming within the factory. We will be filming on Sunday 16th January.

Sunday 16th January- Filming in the meat packing factory.

Songs

This is the song in which we would love to be able to use within our title sequence, we are still looking within the Chinese copy right laws. We think this would fit perfectly within our title sequence and we hope to be able to use it.

Journal 10/01/11

Yesterday Si Hin was able to visit the meat packing suppliers and ask their permission for us to film there, and thankfully they agreed to letting us film there. They also agreed to our requests as they are letting us film them whilst they are working they are also letting us use their office once they have closed up to the general public in the afternoon. They even agreed to act within our title sequence, the only down side to all of this is that they are not really to keen on their faces being shown within our title sequence. So we are trying to come to some kind of agreement with them such as us perhaps not filming them straight on. As we could try to film the side of their faces or maybe the backs of their heads as they are working. We hope to resolve this with them on the day of filming and hopefully they will come around and not mind having their faces appear just slightly within our title sequence. If not we are willing to figure out certain ways to film them that do not really show there faces completely.

We have also finalized a date for filming we are planning on filming in the meat packing factory on Sunday 16th January. As the factory closes early on this day, and they are not particularly busy to the general public on this day. Therefore this would be the best day for them to be filmed, and for us to operate our tripod within there premises. We are now in the planning and scheduling stages of our title sequence. We are scheduling all of our filming and planning how much time it shall take us to film certain parts and what shots we need to prioritize. We are awaiting filming tomorrow and we are trying to finalize an office to film within. We are also trying to gather together props for e.g. a camera in which the inspector shall use, his business card with our new chosen typography on it entitling his profession "Private investigator".

Also we would like to film some exterior shots so we would like Sean Simmons to have  cigarette in his hand as he is stalking Si Hin. We are also finalizing wardrobe as we would like Sean to appear with smart trousers on and a white long sleeved shirt with rolled up sleeves. For Si Hin's look we have adopted a more natural and laid back outfit for e.g. a hoodie and jeans. As we have decided we do not want him to look noticeable as he is portraying a triad he would have to be discrete and blend in like any other normal citizen. We will film these shots on a later date.

Storyboards

Here are our storyboards, we have now edited them as we had a few location changes. We had to change a few certain shots as we wanted to put Si Hin within a Chinese environment that we could make look like a triad setting. Our original storyboards featured Si Hin within his own Chinese take away, we were not given permission to film here thus we chose another location. We went with a meat packing factory in which is a Chinese owned factory, we felt as if this would be a great hub for our triads. As the blood from the meat and the fact that carcasses of dead animals will be around the factory, will connote a distressing and a disturbing sense of danger and death.

New schedule for filming

As a group we have decided upon filming on Tuesday 11th January, we are going to film on the streets and within school hopefully we are able to use the office that we want. We will hopefully film both the investigator's office scenes and the investigator stalking the suspect scenes.

Tuesday 11th January- Filming inside school and on the streets around the school.

Typography for main titles

I looked at these two types of typography as i thought they would give the title sequence a rough edge, and it would connote as if the investigator had written them himself through either anger or stress. I liked the idea of him writing the title sequences himself as it to connote that this is his story this is the closure that he needs for his life. This idea would work really well alongside the rest of the title sequence. But i wanted to carry on with the Chinese element to the title sequence so i went back on to Da font and looked at some more font types.

There was a particular font style on Da font that was called Chinese/Japanese style writing, so i chose that particular font and found these ten fonts. There are certain ones that i am more drawn to than others, but i shall show the group all of these fonts during the week and hopefully we might choose one of them. I thought this style of writing would be best fitting for the title sequence as the triad theme is already very apparent throughout our title sequence. As a group we decided against using a type writing style typography as we feel it would not fit in with our title sequence anymore hopefully this one will be more best fitting.

Journal 08/01/11

Today me and Libby worked on finishing our title sequence, we had to re-do a few aspects such as filming in Si Hin's take away. As this can no longer happen as we do not have permission. This set us all back as we needed to show Si Hin's character to be within a Chinese setting to give the essence of a real triad gang. So right now as a group we are back to thinking of settings, Si Hin has suggested a Chinese meat packing suppliers in which he buys from. So tomorrow he shall visit them and ask them if we can film within their premises.

Due to this location change me and Libby have now made a new storyboard with the changes of the setting in hope that they will let us film there. Si Hin shall ask them if we can film them working and if we can film within their office once they have closed and if some of the workers there wouldn't mind starring in our title sequence. If we can get all of this footage it would make our title sequence much better as it would give it a more gritter and dark side.

Me and Si Hin are also looking within using Chinese music this weekend as we feel this will make our title sequence flow much more. Also we are focusing within a rock n roll song which is fast and sounds heavy as we believe this will give our title sequence a much more tougher edge. We are currently trying to find certain songs that are not copy righted, so we are trailing through YouTube to find a song in this moment of time. There is one song in particular that we think would be a perfect match but we have to search through the UK and Chinese copy right laws, so we will update when we have found a solution.

Another aspect we have finalised today is that of who will be playing our investigator. We have decided to go with using Sean Simmons as we know he enjoys acting, so we hope that he can bring a compelling mysterious and detached essences to our investigator. We have also decided upon changing the appearance and persona of our investigator instead of having someone who looks dapper and like a dandy we have decided to go with a rough and messy look. We want him to have rolled up sleeves and someone who smokes as if to connote how he is careless and reckless and someone not to be messed with.

Journal 07/01/11

Today as a group we have been finishing off our storyboards and we have decided on changing a few elements to our title sequences. As a group we have decided upon changing the name of our title sequence as we have decided that the title (PI) is just a bit too plain and obvious so as a group we brainstormed a few names for our film. Here are some of the names we had to choose from:
-Last assignment
-The last job
-A job too far
-End of the line
-Hard boiled
-Closure
-Private investigation
-Open case

Finally as a group we chose the name "Closure" as we thought this would be best-fitting. As the film in itself is the investigator trying to close this one particular case, he is trying to find closure within the case and the people involved. We also thought that this would well as we wanted to make it seem as if this film could have sequels and be a franchise. As if this film were to be a franchise then it would work as the same group of gangsters would be involved but it would just be the investigator trying to put them all into prison so the idea of closing the case would still work within the sequels.

Other ideas that we had was that of were we like to shoot a lot of our scenes, we would like to do quite a lot of shots on the street of our other lead character (the triad member). As we have decided to film within Si hin's family take away, as there are a lot of dark corridors and small rooms that we could easily make look sinister and into a triad meeting place. We have decided to hopefully start filming within Si hin's family take away this weekend.

We have also decided upon two people that we know who could possibly play the investigator we just have to choose one now based on who will be able to do all of the filming outside of school, so whoever is available on the days of filming shall be the inspector. We will most likely have Sean Simmons acting within our title sequence as he will make a good investigator for our title sequence.

Another change we have thought about is making our own production company as we our not sure about using paramount pictures, this is not a decision we have finalized yet as we are pretty uncertain about this right know. Yet nevertheless we have made an image to represent our production company, we were going to use a triad symbol and call the company "Triad Productions". Our only reasoning's for possibly not using paramount pictures is that of copy righted reasons, as we want to be more original and have a production company that we can make relevant to our film. We are still discussing this idea as a group, so for now we have just played around with the idea and have only made a logo for it so far. This is the image for the production company that we had in our minds...

Journal 05/01/11

Today we all as a group sat down on our own computers to find different types of typography that we could use within our title sequence. We went onto such websites as da font and edited them on photo-shop. We played around a lot with the typography adding such things as gun targets where the letter o should be. We all looked at each others typography and brought all of our ideas together. We decided upon quite a lot of items such as, that we would like two separate types of typography as we would like to use a business card that will say (Private Investigator) on it. We have decided for this that we would like to use very posh and classy typography. Yet for our main titles we would like to use a type writer style of writing. As a group we decided that these two separate typography's will not look weird as they will be used in different ways. As we have decided that we want the business card to act as an explanation to our audiences as if to make them aware of who this character is. This is what the business card's typography shall look like...
We have decided today that we would like the business card to appear on the investigator's desk, as he is putting down his telephone. This way we thought that appearing the card to be just lying upon the investigator's desk shows that this item has little importance to the actual events going on screen. As we would like the business card to act like just a snippet of information about out investigator. We are still researching our main titles typography and will finish this work on Friday, also on Friday we will finish our storyboards completely and add them onto our blogs as soon as possible.

Chosen typography for title sequence

We have chosen this typography to use in a part of our title sequence were we will shall put it onto a business card which will be placed upon the investigators desk.